


Knife's Edge

by FandomObsessedGirl



Series: The End of the Targaryens [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Elia and Rhaegar are married but not in love, Elia can play the Game of Thrones, F/M, they are good friends though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2020-01-16 02:08:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18511741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FandomObsessedGirl/pseuds/FandomObsessedGirl
Summary: Rhaegar Targaryen, Crown Prince of the Seven Kingdoms, has realised just how mad his father has become and knows something must be done.Elia Martell has realised and accepted her husband does not and will never love her but maintains the facade of loving devotion to her Dornish kin knowing her husband will need their support if war breaks out.Lord Whent's Tourney at Harrenhal is where Rhaegar plans to gain support for his plan.  Westeros is on a knife's edge, one wrong move could spell the end.





	1. Prologue - Duskendale

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really write sex scenes so there won't be many if any in this series. There may also be some time between publishing chapters because I have a lot going on at the moment. There may be some inaccuracies as I combine elements from the show and the books but I'll do myself to be as accurate as possible whilst keeping to my interpretation of the events I hope you enjoy!

It had been hard fought, but the King was finally freed.  Barristan Selmy had saved him much to the thankfulness of his friend, Rhaegar, who had written to him personally to express gratitude and reward to his Kingsguard.  I want for no reward, Barristan thought as he rode with the army to Kings Landing, none but something to help Duskendale.

Of course he had known that Duskendale would pay for what it had done - imprisoning the King was the highest form of treason - but the screams of the terrified people and the bloodied corpses of men, women and children that Aerys' army left in its wake would haunt his dreams for a long time.  

Barristan did not ride alongside the King but he could see him riding ahead.  He was even thinner now, more a skeleton than living, Barristan had thought upon seeing him.  His white hair was longer as were his nails and he sat hunched on his horse like a beggar not a King.  But he had been in cells almost a full year, Barristan could not blame the King for his weathered appearance - it was the incensed muttering that had begun since leaving the port that caused him no small amount of alarm.

Aerys had not all been well before he had left for Duskendale ignoring the headings of his Hand Tywin Lannister and son Rhaegar Targaryen, Barristan only feared what the King's treatment at Duskendale had done to his health and his sanity.  

Time back home would be good for Aerys, he surmised, Rhaegar has done well in his father's absence.  

This was true.  At court Rhaegar had proven himself every inch the King he was destined to be in his father's absence.  Though he had heard talk amongst Aerys' more rabid supporters that Rhaegar could have done more to save his father, it was a fraction of the full consensus.  Barristan was wholeheartedly looking forward to the day Rhaegar became King hoping that he would live long enough to see his close friend crowned.

As the gates of the Red Keep opened to them, they were greeted by the sight of the Royal Family.  Queen Rhaella stood with the infant Viserys in her arms and beside her stood Rhaegar.  There had been no love between King and Queen on their wedding day, or through their marriage that Barristan had seen, but the Queen had worried for Aerys that much was true.  She had prayed for his safe return in the Sept of Baelor and worn a veil of black lace over her face when she left the Red Keep in mourning for her brother-husband's situation and carried all duties of a bereaved wife.  

However much of that was her true feelings I cannot say, Barristan thought as the Queen broke into a smile upon seeing the King and presented him with Viserys.  A boy of two years who, having learned to walk a month prior, now ran around the Red Keep away from his nurses and tutors preferring to wave toy swords at the stray cats that lounged in the courtyard than learn calculations.  

Rhaegar moved with his mother, he had always been taller than his father, but Aerys' hunched back made the Prince tower over him.  

The King glanced to his youngest and then moved away to a soft murmur of surprise from those around.  Aerys did not even look to his firstborn nor to his wife and instead moved away to get inside the castle.  Barristan turned to Rhaegar to find that the Prince's welcoming smile had thinned and died upon his father's slight, his hand resting on his mother's shoulder in comfort.

Barristan would grow to wonder what would have happened had he not saved Aerys at Duskendale.   

 

 


	2. Rhaegar I

Duskendale might have been a distant memory to those outside of Kings Landing, but to those within it could have happened yesterday.  The consequences of Lord Darklyn's actions had hung like a black cloud over the capital ever since his father had been freed. 

It was not as if Aerys had been wholly sane before, there were moments where Rhaegar would be concerend.  He would see his father staring into fires as intently as if he were reading, he would see a hysterical laugh snap to sudden fury, he'd overhear muttered conversations the King would have with himself and of course there had been the barbaric execution of the poor nursemaid whom his father had blamed for Prince Jahaerys' death.  

But these moments had been few and far between.

The birth of his little brother Viserys had certainly helped calm some of his tendencies.   _Though perhaps they were merely channeled into a vicious overprotectiveness_ , Rhaegar thought.

He still remembered times when the cloud of madness would clear and a level headed, pragmatic man would appear.  But now it was as if that mad had died - suffocated by the cloak of madness pulled tightly around the King's head.

Away on Dragonstone Rhaegar would hear stories, rumours and when he returned he found the truth often far worse than any could exaggerate.  The smell of burnt flesh in the throne room was unescapable and seemed to permeate the rest of the castle, the purple bruises bloomed across his mother's pale skin, and the King alternated between a constant muttering to himself or screaming about the traitors only he could see.  

Rhaegar had been loathe to leave his mother and little Viserys behind, but after his wedding he knew he had to keep his wife as far from Aerys as possible.  The King was openly scornful of Dorne and its people and the only reason he had decided upon the match to Elia was simply because she was not Cersei Lannister.

The last time he had been back at court was after the birth of his beloved Rhaenys to present the King with his new grandchild.  Aerys had gripped the Iron Throne so tightly the blood from the wounds he made was clearly visible.  As custom Elia had offered her babe to the King to hold - with a healthy dose of fear in her eyes that Rhaegar felt was reflected in his.  Perhaps it was for the best that Aerys shrunk from the babe as though it were a viper but Rhaegar could not forgive the slight on his small family when the King curled his lips and proclaimed Rhaenys "smelled Dornish" and dismissed them all from the room.

Elia had seemed more relieved that the King had kept his curled nails from their babe to be offended by the insult but Rhaegar had quietly seethed.  His wife may not have captured his heart but her friendship was very dear to him, and the love Rhaegar had for his daughter made him furious at the public slandering of them both.

It was true that Rhaenys looked more Dornish than Targaryen; she had inherited her mother's dark skin and hair and had warm Dornish brown eyes rather than the rich purple of the Targaryen family but the blood of Old Valyria ran in her veins and she was as much a dragon as Rhaegar was himself. That had not bothered his mother.  Rhaella had embraced her new granddaughter in delight and congratulated Rhaegar and Elia wholeheartedly.  

But it was the dark bruises wrapped around his mother's throat like a lady's pendant that had stopped him from whisking his family straight back to Dragonstone.  Instead Rhaegar had remained in Kings Landing with his family and taken a place at the Small Council.

 _Tywin Lannister may have been after his own ends_ , Rhaegar thought, _but at least the kingdom flourished in his time as the King's Hand_.  

After the Lord of Casterly Rock had angrily returned home, Aerys had appointed Owen Merryweather as Hand and replaced most of the other Councillors.  All of them seemed to despise Rhaegar and he had no love for them either.  They filled the King's head with stories and vicious rumours and only incensed Aerys' mania. 

 _At least Elia is on my side_ , he thought with a wry smile.

His wife often stayed in her rooms due to her poor health but now she was sat in the courtyards with her ladies laughing at some joke one of them had told. Rhaenys sat in the lap of the Lady Ashara and their second child was a small bump carefully concealed beneath Elia's gown, currently a secret only the parents were privy to.

The letter hung from his hand from Lord Whent.  A tourney to celebrate the nameday of his maiden daughter at Harrenal inviting all the great Lords of Westeros was too good an opportunity to miss.

The King's madness was well known now across the realm.  The nickname 'King Scab' that had been whispered around by the common-folk for years was whispered less and less in favour of 'The Mad King'.  Lord Varys' little birds would often report of the Kings' unpopularity in the North that the rest of the Small Council would fan the flame of till the King screamed for the traitorous Starks, Tullys and Arryns to be brought to him and thrown into the fire.  Rhaegar was barely able to restrain Aerys' temper and those wild eyes would swivel to him and nails like daggers would point as the King called his own heir a traitor and threatened to have _him_ burned alive too.  And then his mother would try to soothe her brother's temper and pay the price in blue and black.

Something had to be done.  Rhaegar already had the support of Elia, her kin and a few of the lords at court.  Lord Whent's tourney would provide an opportunity to reach out to the North and Riverlands - if the whispers Varys spoke of were true, perhaps Rhaegar could win their support.  

"I don't want a war," Rhaegar had said to Elia when he first told her of his plans.

"But if war comes you will need all the support you can get," she had replied and every week since she had penned a letter to her brothers in Sunspear speaking of a deep love and affection that didn't exist between them.

His wife was far smarter than any gave her credit for.  

 


End file.
